


Hold On

by BrightTerror



Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [8]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF David Rossi, Blood and Injury, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Head Injury, Hurt David Rossi, Hurt/Comfort, Protective David Rossi, Rossi acts like Reid's parental figure, Spencer Reid Whump, This gets a tad too bloody, Whumptober 2020, so does hotch, they are the dads of the group
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26933422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightTerror/pseuds/BrightTerror
Summary: Day 10 Of Whumptober: No 10. THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED (Blood Loss)Rossi and Reid are taken by surprise by an unsub, Reid gets really hurt and it's up to Rossi to make sure Reid makes it out alive.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Spencer Reid, Penelope Garcia & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & David Rossi
Series: BrightTerror's 2020 Whumptober [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948378
Comments: 14
Kudos: 188
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Hold On

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt done! yay!  
> This is not beta read and I might have edited this while tipsy so if there's any typos or errors let me know so i can fix them!   
> Hope y'all enjoy it!

Rossi blinks slowly, regaining consciousness takes some time. He doesn’t know what exactly happened, all he knows is he is laying on some old wooden floor that smells like ammonia and his head is complaining, his forehead throbbing. He must have hit his head when he fell down on the floor. 

He moves slowly and groggily and eventually manages to sit up and reach for his gun laying on the floor a few feet away from him. He feels a pinch in his neck and moves his hand to get whatever is causing tension at the back of his head. He feels some sort of capsule needle injected in his skin and he pulls it up with only a wince and a grimace. Staring at it for a few seconds he notices it’s a tranquilizer dart gun. That must be what knocked him out. 

Looking around the empty room he sees a bunch of old, half broken bookshelves with tools and books on it. He stands up with the help of the wall and stands there doing nothing for a few seconds. Confusion is an understatement. He has no idea what’s happening, but he does know he is in danger and whoever was there with him, is too. 

Taking two steps forward, the wood floor creaking beneath his feet, he notices a pattern of red splatters along the floor, leading to the next room. It doesn’t take a profiler to know a blood trial when he sees one. He winces, that can’t be good. 

Before he can do anything else, he hears a blaring gunshot from the other room. He doesn’t hesitate as he runs, gun in hand, towards it. 

The unsub is standing, back to him, with a shotgun in hand, looking down at someone crawling slowly away from him. If Rossi could have seen his face, he would have seen the glint of joy in his eye as he reloaded his shotgun to go for the kill shot. 

Rossi’s mind catches up to him and sees the man crawling away from the unsub with a hand clutched to his abdomen is no other than Reid. He sees the kid is obviously hurt but at least he is alive and conscious enough to try and run from the unsub. He wasn’t succeeding very well at running but he was trying so that has to count right? 

Rossi’s heart skips a beat as the unsub grabs Reid by the arm and forcefully turns him around so that he is facing him. Reid slumps against the wall and tries his best to glare at the man with his half-closed eyes. 

Rossi doesn’t think twice as he points his gun at the unsub and presses the trigger directly at his head. The unsub is dead before he hits the ground and his brains are splattered around, hitting Reid in the face with some of the brain bits. 

If Reid had been more consciously aware and less preoccupied by the pain he’s currently in, he would have probably thrown up for being covered in brains, but he didn’t. 

Rossi shoved the body away from Reid and fell to his knees to be at eye level with him. Now that the danger was dead, he could assess how bad the kid was hurt.

Reid slumped against the wall clutching his abdomen with both--now bloody-- hands and his breathing was shallow, but he is still awake, which means he is still alive. 

There’s a puddle of blood already forming beside him and his usual blue shirt was now permanently tinted a horrid crimson colour. Neither of them had their FBI vests on and Rossi didn’t have the mindset to think back to why. He is too preoccupied at the moment to think why they hadn’t followed orders. Or maybe they had. He honestly didn’t know. 

“R’ssi?” Reid’s big, hazy eyes looked at him in what seemed like relief. “You’re okay.” He half smiled.

“Yeah kiddo, I’m okay. And you’ll be okay too.” He said as he took off his jacket and put pressure on the younger man’s wound. He didn’t want to think how much blood he had already lost. He knows it’s too much, but that wasn’t important now. What was important was to get him help. 

Rossi doesn’t know if backup is already coming or not. Grabbing his flip phone, he calls his first speed dial contact. Thankfully there's a signal where they are so he gets an answer soon. 

“Dave, are you and Reid already done with the interrogation? I think I found some leads.” Hotch answered.

“Aaron.” Rossi cuts his sentence short. He needs to tell him before it’s too late. 

Hotch seems to immediately sense something is off. “Dave, everything okay?”

“Call an ambulance. I don’t know where we are. But we need an ambulance, fast.” He breathes out and pauses to get his thoughts together. “Reid- he... it’s bad.”

“Garcia will track it. We’re on the way.” Hotch said and put his phone on hold to be able to get moving. 

Rossi put the phone on the ground, he had no intentions of picking it up. It was all bloody and he had called for backup, now the phone was useless. 

Reid's breathing is becoming more rapid as he moves to try and get up. Rossi pushes him back down as carefully as he can and continues putting pressure on him. His jacket is already damp with blood and the blood is stopping but not fast enough. “Shh,  _ Piccolo _ , don’t move. You have to stay still, okay?” Rossi soothed and wiped the sweat away from Reid’s face. “Just hang on, you’re going to be okay, help is on the way.”

Reid was becoming paler by the second, and Rossi could feel his hands growing colder as he grabbed onto them for support.  _ There is so much blood _ and Rossi can't say he is keeping his calm. He is a senior FBI agent goddammit, he should not be as scared as he is now, but having one of his agents, one of the people he considers family, bleeding out on his arms is  _ too much _ .

“R’ssi? I'm cold.” Reid whispers and his whole body is shivering. His mouth is pale and tinted a light shade of purple, his eyes are more shut than open. It's great that Rossi is currently putting pressure on his wounds because Reid no longer has the strength for it. 

“I know  _ piccolo _ , I know.” he says faintly. “That’s the blood loss. But you will be okay.” he moved so that he is sitting next to him instead of in front of. He moves his arm around him, and Reid immediately leans to the touch to the point he is completely slouched on Rossi. Reid shivers as he tries to curl on in himself but the pain in his abdomen stops him from moving much. Rossi manoeuvres his free hand to keep pressure on the injury. 

He holds him close, and unknowingly begins to rock him as he would a child. He does it automatically and he wonders if the paternal instincts began after he met his team full of danger-prone people or if he had it in him all along. But it doesn't matter now, he just wants his kid to be safe and alive long enough till Hotch or  _ anyone  _ comes for them. 

Rossi knows he should look for a way out but he doesn't see a car anywhere near the house they are in, he can't carry Reid for who knows how long in the search for a car and there’s no way he will leave Reid alone. So he stays there next to him on the cold floor, he stays until his legs and hands go numb from not moving, and he stays with him when Reid finally loses the small ounce of consciousness he had and finally succumbs to the darkness. “Just hang on kiddo, just hang on” he whispers as a mantra and kisses the top of his head. 

Rossi feels it happen, Reid’s entire dead weight falls on him and for a second he thinks the younger man is dead, so he checks his pulse and lets out a breath he’s holding when he sees he is still alive. After that, every minute or two Rossi checks for a pulse. He holds him close, hoping the ambulance arrives before it's too late. 

He doesn't know how long he is there, logically it could not have been more than a few minutes but for him it felt like hours when Hotch finally arrives. 

Hotch busts through the door with his gun in his hand and with his bulletproof vest on. He had no idea what they were going to find, Rossi called him all panicked and he had no idea if the unsub was there or still alive. As soon as he came in and saw the unsub’s body dead on the ground, he put his gun away, he spotted Rossi holding a very bloody and unconscious Reid and he immediately yelled for the paramedics to come in. 

Hotch knelt down, his face was emotionless except for his eyes that were full of pure fear and worry for the younger agent. Rossi is holding said agent close and Hotch found it unsettling how still Reid is. “Rossi is he-”

“He is alive, at least he was the last time I checked.  _ Where  _ is the ambulance? I  _ asked  _ for an ambulance.”

“We had to clear the place first, make sure there was no danger. They should be here any second now, they were waiting outside.” Hotch tells him, he grabs onto his shoulder to calm him down. 

As if on cue, the paramedics run through the door in full gear and immediately begin putting Reid onto the stretcher to carry him to the ambulance. Rossi holds onto him for a second, not trusting himself to let him go, but Hotch talks him out of it, he also helps him stand up and guides him outside. It all feels like a blur to him. 

“Dave, are you listening to me?” Hotch asks with a frown, he isn't angry that Rossi isn't answering him, he is  _ worried _ . “We have to get you checked up too, you seem pretty roughed up.” 

“I’m  _ fine. _ I need to go to Reid; he can't ride alone in the ambulance. We have to tell them about the no narcotics thing-”

“Dave, don't worry, I already told them about it, they are aware of what drugs not to give him.” Hotch continued to guide him to a car near the ambulance. “As for Reid, you are in no shape to accompany someone in the ambulance. No, don't tell me you are fine, you are covered in blood and I can see you have been hit in the head.” Hotch pauses. “Garcia will be with you; she will drive you both to the hospital and I will be going with Reid. I  _ promise _ I will look out for him.” Hotch doesn't wait for an answer as Garcia gives him a nod to convey to him: she got it covered. He runs to the ambulance where Reid is being taken and they drive to the nearest hospital. 

Rossi notices that as he gets manhandled in the ambulance, Garcia is standing there with a very worried look on her face. But no matter how bad the situation is, she is always a ray of sunshine. When she makes eye contact with him, she gives him the biggest smile she can muster and engulfs him in a hug. “I'm so happy you are okay, old man. C’mon, let's get out of here.” She helps him onto the passenger seat and the rest of the trip is a blur for him.

_____

Rossi apparently did need to go to the hospital too. Shortly after they arrived Garcia made him get checked up by a nurse and it turned out he had a concussion, and he had a slight cut on his leg he didn't even realise he had. Garcia led him to a waiting room where Hotch is, once he had been cleared, him and Garcia had been texting updates all this time to make sure both Rossi and Reid were fine. 

Hotch told them there was no news yet but last he heard, Reid was taken to the OR and needed a few blood transfusions, after all, he had lost a  _ lot _ of blood. Rossi had bought some clothes from the gift shop to change from the bloody clothes, so now he was wearing some blue pyjama pants and a shirt that said ‘Pizza is good for the soul’ that Garcia picked up for him.

Hotch smiled at the t-shirt once he saw them and would have taken pictures to tease Rossi about in the future, but they were all worried for the younger agent. 

Hotch messaged Morgan, JJ, and Emily to let them know what happened. The others had been out of state for a case asked personally by Ambassador Prentiss; so for this case the team had split. Morgan replied immediately that they were taking the jet back home as soon as possible. 

A few hours later in the waiting room a nurse finally told them news about Spencer. There were some close calls and he almost didn't make it but in the end the operation had come out successfully and it looked like he was going to be okay.

Garcia shed a few happy tears and hugged both Rossi and Hotch when she heard the news. Hotch visibly relaxed when he heard Reid was going to make it and Rossi immediately started asking questions to see when they could visit him. 

Reid wasn't going to wake up any time soon so they all took turns to keep him company while the other two waited outside since for now only one person was allowed at a time because he was still in critical condition. 

Reid woke up a few hours later. Rossi had sweet-talked some nurses to let them all stay with him and so he and Hotch were talking quietly next to the hospital bed. Garcia had been there too, but she left to get some coffee and breakfast from the vending machine. 

The first thing Reid did was try to take the IV out of his arm, instantly panicking. He didn't like needles and he definitely did not like needles injecting things into his body. Hotch was at his side in a second trying to calm him down. “Reid, it’s okay, you weren't given any narcotics. This is a saline solution to give you the fluids you need.” 

Reid visibly calmed down and scrunched his nose as he tried to take the oxygen tubes out. He winced as he moved his arms and grabbed his now bandaged abdomen in reflex. “Hotch?” he looked relieved to see a familiar face. He looked to his side and saw Rossi was there too. “Hi.” 

“Hey kiddo, how are you feeling?” Rossi smiled. 

“In pain.” Reid mumbled. “What happened?”

“You got shot with a shotgun at close range.” Hotch told him. “You almost didn't make it.”

“Oh.” Reid blinked a few times. “I don't like getting shot.” 

“No one does, kid.” Rossi scratched his beard and looked at Reid. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“I’m sorry.” Reid remembered. “You were there with me. _ Thank you _ .” He smiled. He could not put how much he appreciated Rossi being there for him. He remembered now, the cold, the pain, the dizziness. But from all the pain and misery he remembered he recalls Rossi holding him and telling him it was going to be okay. He had been there until the end and Reid felt cared for. Outside of the BAU he didn’t know what a caring family was like, he didn’t know what it felt like to have people look out for him for once. Sure, his mother loved him, but she couldn’t take care of him. So, it meant a lot that in one of his worst times Rossi was there for him so he didn't have to go through that alone. 

He is as surprised as the rest that he made it. He had calculated that he would die of blood loss before reaching a hospital judging by the amount of blood he was losing at the time. He guessed his calculations were wrong for once, but in his defence, he  _ was  _ dying so his brain wasn’t working its best then. 

Rossi gave him a slight nod and patted his arm. “Don’t mention kid. There was no way I was leaving.” 

At that moment they heard something falling and turned around. On the floor there were 4 bags of chips and a chocolate bar. Garcia was standing with a huge grin on her face and trying her best not to drop the coffee she was carrying. 

“Baby G man you’re awake.” She gasped and passed the coffee to Hotch before going to give Reid a hug. “You are not allowed to get shot again. First on the knee and now this? I’m going to be very mad at you if you get hurt again.” She said as she continued hugging him. 

“Garcia you’re squishing me.” Reid broke into a grin and laughed. “I will try my best to not get shot again. It’s not one of my favourite activities so I would rather avoid it. 

Garcia loosened up but continued to hug him. “I bought you chips. And you’re not going to be working in the field any time soon so I can set up my office so you can work there with me.” She leaned in and stage-whispered. “If work is slow, we can watch Dr Who episodes while the others are on a case.”

“Garcia.” Hotch raised an eyebrow and suppressed a smile. “I don’t need to remind you of the work policies, do I? As far as I know you are going to be working.”

Garcia smiled and patted Reid’s head. “Don’t worry boss man. I’ll make sure everyone else thinks we’re working. As far as you know no one will watch any shows during work time.” She winked at him and Reid grinned. 

Rossi knew Hotch would let it slide when he inevitably caught them watching shows while on the job and so would he. It had been a close call, right now they were just glad everything turned out fine.

**Author's Note:**

> I seriously love paternal Rossi and Hotch so much so here's yet Another fic of Papa Rossi and Reid.   
> Please, if you like it leave a comment! those make my day!
> 
> Also, Thanks to @AppalachianApologies for helping me brainstorm ideas for this fic and for keeping me motivated to write! she is also doing whumptober for Criminal Minds so check her writing out! 
> 
> I'm participating in the whumptober challenge this year and will most likely write Prodigal Son and Criminal Minds the most for it. So if you like those fandoms you can subscribe to my BrightTerror's 2020 whumptober series!  
> If you want to come and chat find me on Tumblr as: @BrightTerror  
> Have an amazing day!


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